TRIO MAKING PROGRESS

3 October 2014

Alex Renshaw

Ahead of this Saturday’s derby clash with Doncaster, United manager Russ Wilcox has issued an update on a couple of the club’s current injury absentees.

Captain Sam Slocombe took a knock to his shoulder during the Capital One Cup success at Blackburn and hasn’t played since whilst defender David Mirfin damaged cartilage in his knee right at the start of pre-season training.

Speaking firstly about the skipper, Wilcox admitted he hopes to have Slocombe available in the next few of weeks as well as fellow goalkeeper James Severn who is also well on the road to recovery.

He said: “Sam has done a fair bit of work, though he’s not quite up to contact with the rest of the group yet, so he’s working with Paul Musselwhite.

“He’s getting a little bit of discomfort in there, so we have to make sure we’re not doing too much with him.

“I spoke to him on Tuesday and he’s hoping to be available for the reserve game in a couple of weeks’ time.

“It’s positive news for us and James Severn is moving well too. He’s doing everything now apart from kicking, but again he’s a lot closer to being back involved.”

Mirfin has been on the treatment table for three months now, which has seen the Iron boss recruit a number of central defensive replacements to cover for the loss of the 29-year-old.

And whilst Wilcox confirmed that a return to first team action isn’t immanent for the Sheffield-born player, he could welcome him back to training in the not too distant future.

“Dave is a lot more mobile and I’m hoping he’s only one or two weeks away from getting out on the grass,” he added.

“We’ve just got to make sure there’s no imbalance in his muscle and that it is the same size as his left one. Otherwise he’ll just pick up other injuries – thigh strains, groin strains, hamstrings.

“Once he does that he can then build up his development and fitness and hopefully get a bit closer to getting back out onto the pitch.

“He’s done a lot of work in the gym, but things are taking longer than we had hoped. It’s not that something has happened that isn’t right, it’s just that every injury is different.

“We’re hoping we’re only a few weeks away from getting the go ahead for him to start a mini pre-season, but he’s still a fair way off the first team. He needs quite a bit to get back on track.”